Hello, it’s Mick here and welcome to this final week of Foundation Podcasts for 2017.

This week has the same format as last week; you will hear me today and on Friday then three amazing team members at STC – Nikky our Eden team leader, Malc our Estates Manager and Rich who leads our Student Church. They will be sharing their reflections on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. This week we continue the Christmas story in Luke’s gospel – Luke 2:1-20 with a snapshot of Matthew as the Kings appear in the story. Each day we will focus on a particular verse or verses followed by a reflection and prayer, a worship song after which you can hear the full Bible reading for the day. Lord Jesus, speak to us this week through your word…

REFLECTION

Today’s reading is Luke 2:1-7.

We have lots of babies at STC Sheffield; I don’t just mean ‘spiritual babies’ – although we have lots of those as well, people who have become Christians and decided to follow Jesus – we have lots of real life small babies. Maybe it’s something in the water or the teaching on Sunday but we are so blessed by having lots of babies, so much so that I sometimes think we need another new addition to our buildings to park all the buggies in!

Babies at Toddlers in the week on Monday, Thursday and Friday as well babies at Sunday Gatherings – we love babies at STC! Babies are such a gift, not just to their parents but to everybody else around them. It’s not just their cuddlyness (is that a word?) and the joy they bring but it’s much more than that. A baby is a life of great potential all in such a small frame; a baby is a little bundle of love; the gift of a baby brings hope for the future!

Listen again to these two Bible verses from today’s reading – two of the most famous verses in the whole Bible:

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

The baby is born … the gift is given. There is so much happening in these few verses but at its heart, as this baby is born, as this gift is given our God is saying this ‘Trust me, I am faithful’.

Everything that God had promised to Mary, Joseph through the angels visit really did take place – God is faithful.

We also see how Jesus is the fulfilment of all God’s promises in the Old Testament. As we will hear in this week’s readings, Jesus is born in ‘the town of David’ (v.11), and ‘of the house and line of David’ (v.4). He is the promised king, ‘he is the Messiah’ (v.11). God is faithful; that’s why the birth of Jesus is ‘good news… for all the people’ (v.10).

God is faithful – Mother Teresa said, ‘I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness.’ God’s faithfulness encourages us to be faithful in our own lives; in our marriages, our relationships, with our friends … the list goes on.

Tricia, my wife, and I recently became grandparents for the fourth time – little Ivy arrived into this challenging but wonderful world. Ivy is a gift of God to us as are all our grandchildren as well as our three children and their partners – they remind us that God is faithful. What God promises will come to be because the birth of Jesus, his gift to our world demonstrates that God is faithful! Remember that phrase today, repeat it throughout this day, let it sink into your very being. Whatever you face this day remember – Christmas shows that God is real and that God is faithful!

PRAYER

Thank you Jesus for this amazing story of your birth. That you are heaven’s gift to us and you show us that this day I can fully trust you for all I need and all I do and all I am because our God is faithful! Speak to us this week as we hear again the Christmas story through these Podcasts and bless our day. Amen.